NEW YORK : In an urgent letter to the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the head of the UN Security council, Israeli UN Ambassador Gabriela Shalev on Saturday night defended Israel's decision to embark on a military operation in the Gaza Strip in order to put an end to rocket attacks on the South.
"Israel is taking the necessary military action in order to protect its citizens from ongoing terrorist attacks originating from the Gaza Strip and carried out by Hamas and other terrorist organizations," Shalev said, adding that Hamas "holds the sole responsibility for the latest events."
Israel, she continued, "has exhausted all means and efforts to reach and maintain quiet and to respect the state of calm… Israel's response is aimed solely against the terrorists and their infrastructures in the Gaza Strip. It is not intended against the civilian population. Israel is committed to prevent a humanitarian crisis."
Shalev asserted that "No country would allow continuous rocketing of its civilian population without taking the necessary actions to stop it."
The UN Security Council today met behind the closed doors in a rare session to discuss the deteriorating situation in the Middle East in the wake of the Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip which killed more than 225 people.
The 15-member Council is expected to issue a statement, once all agree to its language. The Council President could then read it in an open meeting.
But diplomats said it might take time to hammer out a consensus language with the United States and Arabs giving different perceptive, Washington blaming Hamas while Arabs speaking against Israel.
The Arab League will hold an extraordinary summit in Doha on January 2 to discuss the latest Israeli-Palestinian violence in the Gaza Strip, diplomats said on Saturday after a meeting in Cairo of ambassadors to the organisation.
"An extraordinary Arab summit will be held on Friday in Doha to discuss ways to stop the Israeli attacks on Gaza," one of them said. The same sources said Arab foreign ministers will meet on Wednesday, ahead of the summit.
The decision was in response to a proposal by Qatar on a day in which Israeli air raids killed 225 people in Gaza and wounded another 700 in response to continuing rocket fire by militants